Rhododendrons

Abstract

The genus Rhododendron (family Ericaceae) is one of the largest in the plant kingdom with more than 800 species and several thousand hybrids and cultivars, many of which are economically important as ornamental landscape plants. In the wild, the genus is mainly confined to temperate regions with a high rainfall in the northern hemisphere. The principal centre of distribution is in China, Nepal and Burma, where such species as Rhododendron hodgsonii (6 to 9 m tall) and R. grande (often 15 m high with trunks 60 cm in diameter) can be seen; other species are found on the east and west coastal areas of North America (for example, R. maximum is native to the southern Appalachians), in Turkey and Malaysia (Cox 1979).